Baran Karapunar
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barankarapunar.bsky.social
Baran Karapunar
@barankarapunar.bsky.social
280 followers 290 following 93 posts
Dr. rer. nat. in Palaeontology, research fellow at University of Leeds @envleeds.bsky.social, Marine food web dynamics across mass extinctions 🦈, Palaeozoic & Mesozoic gastropods 🐚, Jurassic bivalves 🦪, Permian-Triassic mass extinction 🌋
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barankarapunar.bsky.social
Baran Karapunar @barankarapunar.bsky.social · Sep 23
Our article 🐌 "Phylogeny of the
longest existing gastropod clade (Pleurotomariida) reconstructed with Bayesian and parsimony methods and its implications on gastropod shell characters" 🐚 authored by me, S. Höhna & A. Nützel is published 🥳
A long #MolluscMonday 🧵😎

doi.org/10.1080/1477...
Phylogeny of the longest existing gastropod clade (Pleurotomariida) reconstructed with Bayesian and parsimony methods and its implications on gastropod shell characters
Evolutionary relationships of fossil gastropods have largely been inferred using taxonomic systematics. Phylogenetic relationships between extinct gastropod groups and their relationship to extant ...
doi.org
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
thefuzzyslug.bsky.social
Hats! Collector Urchin (Tripneustes gratilla)

#TidalFarce #SciArt #comic 🦑 more info about this critter -> tidalfarce.com/index.html?p...
Panel 1: A brightly colored green, orange, white, and dark purple sea urchin, they have a kelp frond draped across the top of their orbness like a hat, a few orange spines poking through the seaweed, urchin is saying, "Hmm...", Panel 2: same urchin now has a pebble that is the anchor for a small anemone as a hat, urchin is saying, \"Maybe...?\", Panel 3: same urchin now with the shell of a dead urchin of the same species as a hat, "Nah.", Panel 4: close up of urchin reaching off screen with black and white tube feet to some obscured object, "Ohhhh!", Panel 5: a larger panel that contains several urchins wearing various sea debris as hats such as a chunk of a candy wrapper, some pebbles, a limpet shell, and some sea grass. The urchin from the previous four panels now has a large crusty looking dive knife as a hat and is saying "It's PERFECT" while the other urchins say, "nice!" and "so stylish!"
November 24, 2025 at 4:43 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
aubronectes.bsky.social
Our first follow up from the Science paper: New paper on tooth morphology in the Grippia Bonebed - the oldest and most diverse Mesozoic marine tetrapod ecosystem. Paper open access here: njg.geologi.no/publications...
Dental and Dietary Disparity Among Marine Vertebrates from the Early Triassic (Spathian) of Svalbard – Life Bites the Dust, or A New Hope? - Norwegian Journal of Geology
The Early Triassic saw the recovery of ecosystems after the most severe mass extinction event in Earth’s history. However, the ecosystems of the Early Triassic and their patterns of recovery after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction are poorly known due to a scarce fossil record. This study uses dental material to provide information on the taxonomic […]
njg.geologi.no
November 24, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
thepalass.bsky.social
🎓 Looking for an exciting PhD project?
Check out some amazing opportunities on our page! 🌍🔬

👉 palass.org/phd-opportun...

Have a PhD opportunity to share?
You can easily add it using the “Add a PhD Opportunity” button! 📝✨

#phd #phdlife #advertising #palass
November 24, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
tweetisaurus.bsky.social
Geology and palaeobiology at the University of Leicester are under threat, with at least 14 staff expected to be made redundant. Support them, their postdocs, and their students by signing this petition: c.org/SK8Xm8dhqK
Sign the Petition
Save Geology at the University of Leicester
c.org
November 19, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
dralexdunhill.bsky.social
PGRs Amy Shipley (@sauropodlets.bsky.social) & Lydia Woods recently published a review in @globalchangebio.bsky.social showing that while today’s extinction rates aren't yet at "Big Five" mass extinction levels, they’re likely the highest seen in the last 66myrs.

amdunhill.co.uk/2025/11/17/n...
New paper by Amy Shipley and Lydia Woods
DeepBio@Leeds PGRs Amy Shipley and Lydia have published a review on the sixth mass extinction, as part of a working group on Cenozoic extinctions led out of the Anthropocene Biodiversity Centre at …
amdunhill.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
lhliow.bsky.social
Focussing on the positive from this issue’s Science, work by our museum colleagues in Oslo led by the wonderful
@aubronectes.bsky.social Aubrey Roberts.
science.org Science Magazine @science.org · 12d
An early Triassic bone bed excavated at 78°N changes the story about how marine life recovered after the most cataclysmic extinction in Earth history ~252 million years ago.

Learn more in this week's issue of Science: https://scim.ag/48bLsGI
An early Triassic bone bed excavated at 78°N changes the story about how marine life recovered after the most cataclysmic extinction in Earth history ~252 million years ago. The quantity and diversity of marine reptile and amphibian fossils show that these groups had already radiated into complex oceanic ecosystems by ~249 million years ago.
November 14, 2025 at 8:11 AM
barankarapunar.bsky.social
For this #FossilFriday, something special for me: one of the few books on fossils in Turkish when I was a kid. 13 yo me was turning the pages, reading word by word to learn about fossils, dreaming about being a paleontologist. Many years later, at a Palaeontological Association conference dinner...
Book cover with title "Fosiller" and several fossil images.
November 13, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
dralexdunhill.bsky.social
Want to do a PhD linking palaeontology, ecological modelling and polar ecosystems? Look no further than this NERC GW4+ DLTP funded project with @rowanwhittlebas.bsky.social at @bas.ac.uk & @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social and others (inc me).

www.bristol.ac.uk/media-librar...
www.bristol.ac.uk
November 12, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
paleosynth.bsky.social
On Saturday November 15, 2025 we will open the call to submit proposals for the Analytical Paleobiology School 2026 for grad students in Erlangen for a training in analytical methods. Do you want to join or send someone? More info and details: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/science-scho...
November 11, 2025 at 7:03 AM
barankarapunar.bsky.social
Here are some fossil pleurotomariids, which have lived in Earth’s oceans for over 450 million years.This is a kind of snail you won’t find in your garden or on a seashore. You’d have to dive 400 meters to see a living one.If you could beachcomb in the Jurassic, you’d probably find one on the coast🐚
Dozens of fossil pleurotomariid shells in a drawer from the collection of the University of Zurich. Close up image of the fossil pleurotomariids and of a scale.
November 9, 2025 at 4:21 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
pipipohutukawa.bsky.social
Look I don’t have a 🐌 handy ok and it’s dark outside, but here’s some sand graffiti from my local created by, I dunno, a 🐌 I hope.
Sand snail trail on a beach - very squiggly and akin to a graffiti tag.
November 9, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
fossilsndcoffee.bsky.social
Snails 🐌 ! a 🧵 of snail pics on my phone as a snail paleontologist.

Turritella cooperi

Excluded: videos, John Oliver save PRI posts, pics of snails with lots od not snails.
BTW, donating to PRI is definitely in the realm of "save the snails", lots of snail history there, 1 mil+ 🐌specimens
Many turritella cooperi in a box from LACMIP
November 9, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
spissatella.bsky.social
Some snails from work: Cross-sectioned pleurotomarioid, cross-sectioned Campanile, truly behemoth cowry, and ( just casually) the type of Ecphora quadricostata (Say)
A cross-sectioned specimen of a fossil pleurotomarioid snail, infilled with pale yellow sediment A cross-sectioned specimen of Campanile giganteum, the top third of the spire is broken off and in a separate box A hand holding an enormous round brown fossil cowry A specimen of Ecphora quadricostata with all its museum labels and a Paleontological Society scalebar
November 9, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
thepalass.bsky.social
🦕 Thinking about a career in Palaeosciences? 🌍
Explore a list of Masters Courses and take the next step toward uncovering Earth's ancient secrets! 🔍✨

If you coordinate a Masters course that you’d like to see listed, need to update existing information,[1/2]
November 6, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
Fossilized masses of little tiny egg-shaped poops keep showing up in surprising places - inside fish braincases, inside pulp cavities of whale and dolphin teeth, and now, within the middle ear sinus of an extinct dolphin. Who, uh, dealt these? coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/11/acid...
A cluster of 1-2 mm long egg shaped fecal pellets inside the middle ear sinus of a 28 million year old fossil dolphin earbone. A fossil dolphin earbone with some clusters of fecal pellets preserved inside.
November 5, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
daverodland.bsky.social
Lingulids have seen perhaps the coldest, slowest taxonomic debates you can imagine over the past few decades. While there was a general sense that most Paleozoic and Mesozoic taxa weren't actually Lingula, early attempts at revision were ... problematic.
'Lingula' cuneata, from the Silurian Medina sandstone (Medina, NY). The genus assigned here reflects the difficulties in delineating taxonomically meaningful characteristics from sub-mm thick, fragile chitinophosphatic shells resembling watermelon seeds. I'm paraphrasing someone here, but can't recall who. Jablonski? Anyways. It's a lingulid, but not Lingula.
November 1, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
nhmbryozoa.bsky.social
#MolluscMonday Flattened specimen of the Early Jurassic ammonite Harpoceras photographed on the North Yorkshire coast in 2011.
October 20, 2025 at 4:27 AM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
coastalpaleo.bsky.social
🦖🐬🧪An incredible "fossil brain" of a fossil fur seal (Thalassoleon macnallyae) from the Pliocene Purisima Formation near Santa Cruz. This incredible specimen preserves a cranial endocast with exquisite detail. Read more about fossil fur seals on my blog: coastalpaleo.blogspot.com/2025/10/the-...
A partial fossil skull in black and white of a juvenile fur seal; the snout is missing, and the right side of the braincase has been removed, revealing an incredibly well preserved cranial endocast.
October 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
msshanhuang.bsky.social
A PhD opportunity to work with me, @spissatella.bsky.social and our friends through CENTA - biogeography and vulnerability of exploited bivalves, with possible spin-offs about fishery sustainability and environmental economics: centa.ac.uk/studentship/...
2026-B19 Marine biodiversity and its future under environmental changes and exploitation – CENTA
centa.ac.uk
October 24, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
bug-gwen.bsky.social
A dumb question for taxonomic friends: who came up with the idea for type specimens? Everything I read defines things like holotypes, but doesn't explain where the bigger concept first came from. @americanbeetles.bsky.social @alexwild.bsky.social @morethanadodo.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
fossilrod.bsky.social
This #fossilfriday, we move in time to the #Permian when the #amphibian Seymouria sanjuanensis lived in what is New Mexico today. Clusters of large animals like this one are rarely found in the #fossil record, especially this well preserved.

Photo: Amy Henrici
October 24, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
friel.bsky.social
New species of #coelacanth from the Early Triassic of China just dropped. Say hello to Whiteia anniae.🐟🧪 #FossilFriday

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Whiteia anniae sp. nov. in right lateral view, Holotype (CHU 2016). (a), Whole specimen. (b), closeup of the calcified lung (indicated by lower arrows) and lateral line (indicated by upper arrows). (c), a scale near the head. (d), anterior tips of jaws with arrows indicating the fangs in anterior coronoids. (e), denticles on the last ray of the anterior dorsal fin.
October 24, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
tmitchellbrown.bsky.social
An analysis of over 5,000 fossils found dung beetles developed a taste for fetid meat significantly earlier than previously believed.

The 37-million-year-old discovery suggests fierce fecal competition drove some species to start eating flesh.

#Paleontology #FossilFriday

🧪🏺

New for @science.org
How poop-eating beetles evolved to eat rotting flesh
Analysis of thousands of fossils pushes back change in beetles’ diets by more than 37 million years
www.science.org
October 17, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
stereospondyl.bsky.social
After two years of hard work, I’m proud to announce that our new special exhibition @smnstuttgart.bsky.social is now open for the public – Meet Triassic Life: Dawn of the world of reptiles (1/7).
October 17, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Baran Karapunar
nielsjdewinter.bsky.social
It was (and still is) an absolute pleasure to work with the brilliant Ana Lores Padin (UGent) to develop and calibrate this very cool "time of flight" laser ablation-application which allows us to map the chemistry of shell cross sections, such as the oyster shell below:
pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
LA-ICP-TOF-MS for quantitative mapping of biogenic carbonate samples using matrix-matched nanoparticulate pressed powder pellets
This study evaluated the micro-homogeneity of seven different commercially available nanoparticulate pressed pellets based on a CaCO3 matrix and their utility for quantitative elemental mapping of bio...
pubs.rsc.org
October 17, 2025 at 5:11 AM